Music of Zanzibar and the Arabic trade Routes

Thesis 

Zanzibar has a long history that was influenced by the Portuguese, the Indians and later on by the Swahili-speaking Arabic tribes. The major type of music in Zanzibar is taarab. It is from the influence of these two major groups that taarab music originated. This essay will analyze the cultural significance and environment in which taarab music is appreciated and developed. The location of Zanzibar and the geographical significance are also expounded in this essay. The discussion on the dispersion of Arabic musical instruments through trade activities will be mentioned in the geographical section. The fundamentals of taarab music and the prominent examples of this genre of music form the major part of this paper. Taarab music is the most common genre of music in the Swahili culture. Taarab has its origins in Zanzibar but the influences that contributed towards its development reach Asia. Economic and political factors have shaped the development and spread of the taarab style of music (Khamis 17)

Cultural context 

Taarab music is also referred to as taarab or Swahili wedding music. From the definition, it is visible that taarab plays a major role in daily cultural festivals. The basic presentation of a taarab show involves an exhibition of eveningwear by young and old women who are backed up by a complete band. Taarab cannot be said to be a true genre; it is more of a hybrid of various music genres from Egypt, Arabia and India. Taarab music features in the all of the major cultural festivals including Sauti za Busara and the ZIFF Festival of the Dhow Countries. Taarab music is also played during the two major Muslim celebrations, Eid ul Fitr and Eid ul Hajj.

Zanzibar weddings offer the best locations for experiencing the true expression of Zanzibar culture through taarab music. Typically, a wedding in Zanzibar involves one or a couple of orchestra bands that provide entertainment to the audience. The lyrics within taarab music were edited to increase the relevance to the particular festival. Within weddings, taarab often involves traditional ngoma dances such as Cuban rumba, Zairian and chakacha dance. Various aspects of Swahili poetry and fashion shows also accompany the music in taarab performances. Apart from entertainment, taarab was also considered highly educative. The government itself promoted taarab for educative purposes by establishing the Culture Musical Club in 1964. The focus of taarab in weddings is to mobilize and discuss various social values and concerns with an aim of counseling and advising the newly-weds on life skills.

As a source of social equality, taarab was considered a channel through which gender balance could be achieved. After the success of Siti bint Saad, many women were encouraged and supported to come up with women taarab clubs. These groups became vital in organizing weddings and even created employment for their male counterparts by hiring male clubs to compliment their music. Prominent female artists and managers such as Mariam Hamdani, Bi Kidude and Khadija Baramia shaped the traditional taarab scene through their talented clubs like Twinkling Stars and Nuru el-Uyun. The commercial benefits such as recording albums and performing live shows assisted the women to improve their living standards (Pareles 16).

Geography

The geographical locations of Zanzibar and Tanzania as the core origins of taarab are part of a historically larger ethnic group of Swahili speaking Bantus that occupied East and Central Africa. The Swahili people at the coast emerged as an economic power that controlled the ocean trade and the caravan routes between the hinterland and the foreign communities like Arabs, Portuguese and Indians. The scope of the trade covered the east of Indian Ocean, Eastern Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. Taarab music was documented as starting with the reign of Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar who established the culture of taarab music that was collected from his experiences around the world. The interaction between musicians on the boats that operated along the Indian Coast was one of the origins of taarab music.

These musicians would engage their musical experiences that would combine various genres of music that ultimately created taarab. Long distance traders who shipped ivory, spices and silverware from Zanzibar to Egypt and India also regularly ferried entertainment for the royalty. The interaction between Egyptian, Indian and Zanzibar music created a hybrid genre that was named taarab because of its danceable rhythms. The location of Zanzibar was strategic as the entry of different music forms and the dispersal of taarab music to Asia and North Africa. The sole impact of Siti bint Saad was also influential in dispersing the genre of music.

Music fundamentals 

The music fundamentals of taarab rest in the collection of various musical performers with different instruments that contribute to the richness of taarab. The initial form of traditional taarab was characterized by large bands comprising of many instrumentalists singers and back-up dancers. The style of singing also consisted of structured lyrics that touched on subtle themes. The musical instruments that appear in a taarab may differ but the most prominent ones include the qanun, oud (Arabic lute), accordion, violins and a variety of percussion instruments. The best comparison of authentic taarab musical may be some traditional Egyptian music that was Africanized (Igobwa 34).

Within the cities, different bands sometime come together and perform variations of original productions that are more percussive styles called kidumbak. Modern taarab emerged in the late 1980s with the rise in commercialized music. Modern taarab is characterized by composure and playing on the keyboard as the main instrument. Such modern taarab groups are more portable, smaller in number and perform at more shows than their traditional counterparts perform. Modern taarab groups have gained popularity in Zanzibar by recording and marketing their audio cassettes and live performances across Kenya, Tanzania and the Middle East. Modern taarab has had more influence on the global music scene than the traditional form. Traditional taarab or taarab asilia has been slowly replaced with innovations in the musical instruments, powerful beats and danceable tunes. The drastic change occurred in the textual expressions that were amplified and non-discrete in the modern taarab (Flavia 24).

Musical examples  

The traditional groups that trace their roots back to 1905 include Nadi Ikhwaan Safaa or Malindi Music Club played a different style of taarab in the Middle East before relocating to the Indian Ocean coast in Zanzibar. One of the first singers to record taarab music in Swahili was Siti bint Saad and Sheikh Mbaruk who recorded in India in the 1940s. The single Kijiti by Saad is a common example of traditional taarab done in the early 1900s. Modern taarab came around in the late 1980s with the advent of produced music in East Africa. After the debut by Saad, more women entered the taarab scene with Swahili as the main language of communication.

The sudden interest in Swahili by taarab artists in Zanzibar stemmed from the Africanization process that sought to rid the island of the Arab presence. Because of this, many groups and clubs changed their names to posses Swahili significance. Among the younger generation, the emergence of modern taarab is propagated by groups like East African melody and Zanzibar Stars. Other prominent artists that have made an impact on the taarab scene with their music include Spices of Zanzibar group and Bashraf: Taarab Instrumentals from Zanzibar group who have received international recognition as exemplary artists and music groups (Ntarangwi 56).

Work cited

Flavia Aiello Traore. Continuity and change in Zanzibari taarab SWAHILI FORUM 11 75, 81. 2004. Web. July 10, 2012.

Igobwa, Everett Shiverenje. “Taarab and Chakacha in East Africa: Transformation, Appreciation and Adaptation of two popular music genres of the Kenyan Coast”. 2007. Web. July 10, 2012.

Khamis Said A.M. “Wondering about Change: The Taarab Lyric and Global Openness”. Nordic Journal of African Studies 11(2). 2002. Web. July 10, 2012.

Ntarangwi, Mwenda. “A Socio-Historical and Contextual Analysis of Popular Musical Performance Among the Swahili of Mombasa, Kenya”. Information Services and Technology Berkeley. 2012. Web. July 10, 2012.

Pareles Jon. “Riches Borne by the Musical Trade Winds”. New York Times. 2 October 2006. Web. July 10, 2012.

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